Brockton schools superintendent steps down after scathing report on budget oversight

The superintendent of Brockton Public Schools resigned Friday, effective immediately, as the district contends with turmoil related to a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.

Serving as superintendent since 2019, Michael Thomas worked within the school district for more than two decades. His contract was set to expire at the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

In a statement announcing his resignation, the school system said Priya Tahiliani would continue to serve as interim superintendent. The Brockton School Committee appointed her to that role in July.

“Work is already underway to reinvent our budget process while continuing to return the focus to students’ education and achievement,” she said in the statement.

As WBUR reported last September, Brockton city officials first announced the district was facing an $18 million deficit for the 2023 fiscal school year. Tensions ran high around the mayor’s stunning revelation, and in that same meeting, it was also announced that Thomas would be out for an “extended medical leave.”

In February, school committee officials voted to place Thomas on paid administrative leave.

An independent investigation report, made public earlier this week, found that there was no criminal wrongdoing that led to last year’s budget deficit. Instead investigators cited city and school leaders for a lack of oversight on district spending.

The report cited overspending in three key areas, including personnel, transportation and out-of-district tuition tied to special education services. "Incompetence, territorial boundaries, and woefully inadequate checks and balances were pervasive," investigators wrote. They also blamed the Brockton School Committee for being "unquestioning and disengaged on financial matters."

At a special Brockton school committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the release of the report, member Jorge Vega offered his assessment.

“This is enough to know that the superintendent at the time, the CFO at the time, were doing a terrible job,” he said at the meeting. “You can't be rewarded for doing a terrible job, so this is all the information I need to make a decision.”

After Thomas resigned Friday, Vega wrote in a Facebook post he wished Thomas "all the best" going forward.

"As a school committee member, I have to base my evaluation of a superintendent on their ability to perform their core responsibilities — one of the most important being their fiduciary responsibilities," Vega wrote.

Thomas's voluntary departure does not come as a surprise to some education observers given the details revealed in the independent investigation. "I think the former superintendent who was on leave elected to resign or retire rather than attempt to reclaim his position, which would have been extraordinarily difficult given the text of the report," said Glenn Koocher, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

He added that one thing for sure may come out of this situation: "It's gonna be a long time before some superintendent tells the school committee, 'Mind your own business' when it comes to finances," Koocher said.

With reporting from WBUR senior education reporter Carrie Jung.